4/6 Stonard Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 5 bay wide 2 storey stone faced, house and shop front with back return and outbuildings, slated and with basement.

Elevation to Stonard Street, asymmetrical, 5 bays wide with shopfront to east end and arched recessed house entrance to west end with double hung sliding sash 12 pane window on each side. Shopfront has central recessed double door entrance, with fanlight, each door with glazed upper panel. On each side a single large plate glass clear window, each returns in narrow shop window to entrance door. Shopfront framed with narrow parallel pilasters and over a full length painted namefascia with cornice and bottom moulding. Beneath window cills a painted plaster panel. Stonard Street slopes steeply from east to west, so a flight of 5 steps ascend to house entrance, which has a boldly profiled arched moulded architrave with concave curved recess with 5 panelled grained door, 4 fielded and the lower one in vertical t & g sheeting. Over a semi-circular fanlight with quasi fanned glazing bars. Door and fanlight further recessed with reveals. The concave surround smooth rendered and painted in gloss. On each side 12 pane double hung sliding sash windows with painted brick trim and painted sandstone cills. At first floor 5 no. 12 pane double hung sliding sash windows centred over elements below, 2 over shopfront. Windows are unevenly spaced. On either side of house door at basement level 1 no. 9 panedouble hung sliding sash window and a smaller 4 pane light inserted below entrance steps.

Along the house frontage, a basement area projects with wrought iron railings mounted on kerb and returned up entrance steps. At gutter level a shallow overhang, returned on gables with ½ round metal gutters, no downpipes on main façade. Wall built in coursed squared white limestone rubble with toothed sandstone quoins painted. Roof hipped, natural slates, 2 large smooth rendered, unpainted chimney stacks with low pots. Dark ridge and hip tiles. Street lamp mounted on façade with exposed electric cabling.

Elevation to Mill Lane, 7 bays long, 5 of which 2 stories with 2 nine pane double hung sliding sash windows at ground floor, one boarded up and 1 sheeted door. At first floor 4 12 pane double hung sliding sash windows and 1 no. blank, infilled with red brick, all with brick trim, walls coursed roughly squared white limestone rubble with quoins at N corner. Corbelled brick under gutter, roof as front façade. Beyond 2 storey, a single storey bay with single window and last bay 1½ storeys with ground floor door and above hoist door.

Gable at gateway in Stonard Street has single 12 pane double hung sliding sashwindows at ground and first floors, asymmetrically placed. Walls faced as before. The rear of the building, 3 floors high, which includes basement, has a motley arrangement of windows, continued along the back return, most are 12 pane double hung sliding sash, a flight of steps gives access to back at ground floor level. Walls generally built as before, but with redbrick where there has been alterations in the distant past e.g. in the angle of back return a brick projection occurs on basement and ground floors to allow a stairway within from shop to basement under. The return on yard side is 3 bays long, 3 floors high and reduces to 2 floors of 1 bay with 2 floor return formed parallel to main building and forming enclosure to yard, has a gable with 4 floors with one roof pitch sweeping down to 2 storey height. Beneath the main return 3 segmented arched gateways, 2 marked by sliding doors. There are several other single sheeted doors. Wall and roof construction as before. Missing trunkhead had date 1827 cast on.

The house and shopfront onto Stonard Street which slopes considerably from E to W so that a basement areas occurs towards the W end. Mill Lane bounds the E side while a gateway entrance gives access to yard and rear of building.

Historical information

The O.S. Memoirs states “From High Street extends Stonard Street westwards, and consists of a few neat 2 storey houses built by the company and occupied by shopkeepers”. This description probably includes 4/6 Stonard Street. However, the building appears to have been altered and enlarged in the intervening years. Booth’s plan of Moneymore in 1832 shows a back return to the west end of the house, while a plan of 1839 shows the back return at the other end but not quite as it is today. The O.S. Map of 1906 shows the building as it is today with the various back returns. The building most likely has been substantially rebuilt and extended since Booth’s time but the architectural character has been retained and inclusive of white limestone facings with brick trim. The function of the building likewise has been continued i.e. shop and residence. The present occupant has been living there some 60 years and the family carried on a hardware business. More recently the shop was a library and later an antique business. Presently it is vacant. The extensive return and outbuildings contained warehouse and stables with gateway from Stonard Street and additional access from Mill Lane. A little below the W gable ran the mill race which supplied a mill pond for the early mill.

References

Primary Sources
1. O.S. Map 1832 Londonderry sh. 46.
2. O.S. Map 1832 Rev. 1856 Londonderry sh. 46.
3. O.S. Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co Londonderry XI, 1821, 1833, 1836-7 p. 39.
Ed by Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams Q.U.B.
4. Curl J.S. Moneymore and Draperstown. UAHS p.34, 35

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A pleasing early to mid 19th century house and shop in provincial Georgian style, with handsome white limestone wall facings in coursed squared rubble with brick trim, though now painted on the principal façade. It lacks some of architect Booth’s typical detail but illustrates the use of local limestone in contrast to the more sophisticated ashlar sandstone of the later cornmarket and other residential buildings. Mill Lane and boundary wall to the west are essential elements of the building and site.

General comments

**Under consideration : awaing additional information** 30th March 2004